Summer Rae talks Royal Rumble comeback, restarts Total Divas beef

The Jan. 7 SmackDown’s surprising announcement about entrants in the 2022 Women’s Royal Rumble brought a ton of reactions. A lot of it was on Impact Knockouts champ Mickie James bringing her trash bag full of history through the forbidden door for a return, or WWE Hall of Famers The Bellas coming out of retirement.

But former NXT BFF, Fandango dance partner, and Rusev love interest Summer Rae was trending on Twitter, too. The Jan. 29 show in St. Louis will be her first wrestling gig in the United States in over five years, after all.

Summer — whose real name is Danielle Moinet — jumped on Instagram Live Friday night to talk about her Rumble debut (h/t 411mania for transcription):

“Okay, so obviously I can’t sleep, and I’ve been on Twitter and I am so overwhelmed by the amazing response on Twitter by you guys! Oh my gosh! Like, we weren’t even supposed to announce that I was going to be in the Rumble. It was going to be a surprise, and then I found out a couple of hours ago.

“So, I was really nervous to look on Twitter because people are mean, like, people just be mean on Twitter. And the response; everyone was so nice. You guys have me in my feels, and everyone’s so hyped. And I don’t know, I’ve just been gone so long that I didn’t know what the response would be like. Like, I didn’t know if it’d be positive or negative, and it’s just so good. And thank you so much.

“All my friends are being so supportive and just the fans, like Wrestle Twitter’s just insane, and I’m just so excited, and now I’m happy that I don’t have to keep this a surprise until the end of the month. And in my most recent Q&A, when I said, ‘Oh, no, I have so much going on. I wouldn’t go back, but I lo–” — I’ve known for weeks. Don’t sleep on me. I was playing. I was working y’all! It’s a work. Life’s a work!”

Speaking of work, Moinet’s kept herself plenty busy outside of wrestling — including with modeling work and a job heading up the marketing efforts of a cryptocurrency outfit. After last week’s announcement, however, she immediately turned her attention back to generating heat for her in ring return. Summer’s beefing on Twitter with a former Total Divas co-star/rival who’s stepped up her social media game lately, Natalya.

There’s more, and while they would work together in the ring after Summer’s time on the E! reality show was done, maybe there was some real animosity there?

Nah, everything’s a work, remember? Ready for the return of Summer Rae, Cagesiders?